Your Eagletarian is trying to grab a bit of vacation, at a time of year when the Eagles' offices are closed and next to nothing is going on around the league. What could possibly happen to keep me from restaining the picnic table that sits moldering in my back yard?

Vick Thoughts; Cunningham Condolences

Les Bowen and Daily News staff

Posted:
Thursday, July 1, 2010, 5:22 PM

Your Eagletarian is trying to grab a bit of vacation, at a time of year when the Eagles' offices are closed and next to nothing is going on around the league. What could possibly happen to keep me from restaining the picnic table that sits moldering in my back yard?

Michael Vick, of course.

My opinion: If nothing else substantive arises -- if no evidence emerges that Vick participated in, suggested or otherwise was involved in the shooting of Quanis Phillips last week outside the restaurant where Vick was holding his 30th birthday party -- then neither the league nor the Eagles should do anything to Vick.

Already, you hear people saying the Eagles should cut ties, just on the basis that this latest bit seems fishy, and Vick was warned he had to walk a narrow path last year when he was reinstated. The undercurrent there seems to be "this was a bad idea from the start, so let's just forget it."

I agree with the "bad idea" part. I was astonished when the Eagles decided to get involved with Vick last August. I wouldn't have done it.

But they did it. And now, I don't know that I can endorse the idea that they can honorably walk away just because something unsavory happened at an event Vick hosted. They made him their employee. Now they have an obligation to treat him fairly and decently, as they would any other employee. At this point, if Vick's "redemption" is a failure, it reflects on his would-be redeemers.

Of course, the condition I set forth there in my second paragraph is a huge "if." I'll be a little bit surprised if the video with the inconvenient time stamp is the last revelation to emerge. You don't have to be a cynic to feel this story has been trending badly, with Vick having gone from out of the area for an hour, to out of the area for half an hour, to a time stamp that says he'd been gone maybe three minutes when Phillips was shot (and the video also says that he disappeared in thedirection from which the shots came).

Still, so far, nobody has said Vick shot Phillips, or that he asked anyone else to shoot Phillips. Until that happens, as far as I'm concerned, the Eagles have no justification to just hoist their petticoats and scamper away.

A few readers seem concerned about this from the football end of things -- Vick is the lone experienced backup quarterback. I think that's a relatively minor concern. He ain't that great a backup quarterback. I think the Eagles really wanted somebody somewhere to give them a draft pick for him earlier in the offseason, so they could sign Jeff Garcia to hold the clipboard for Kevin Kolb. That scenario remains in place; Garcia hasn't signed anywhere.

***

A number of you have emailed to ask where you can send condolences to Randall Cunningham and family following the tragic death of his 2-year-old son Christian on Tuesday.

"Pastor Randall is our role model in our faith and everything. This will be no different. I'm confident he will show us how to get through this. Only God knows why. We're all going to grieve. We are happy Christian is with God. It is the rest of us who need prayer."